Thomas
Thomas the Tank Engine is a cheeky blue E2 Class tank engine who works on the NWR and lives on the Island of Sodor. He used to work at Brighton on the Mainland, but was purchased by Sir Topham Hatt I in 1915 and became the NWR No.1. He runs the Ffarquhar Branch with his two friends, Percy and Toby. Occasionally, he goes to work at Knapford Harbour and as a shunter at Knapford when required, but more often than not, he runs passenger trains on his branch with his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel. History Pre-SOTN In 1915, LBSCR E2 No.70 was sent to the Island of Sodor instead of one of his fellow LBSCR shunters, much to his delight. After a bit of bartering between Sir Topham Hatt I and the heads of the LBSCR, they sold this new tank engine to Sir Topham for an undisclosed amount of money in 1920. No.70 was renamed Thomas, and repainted in NWR Blue. After that more NWR owned engines began to appear on the Island. 3 more engines, Edward, Henry, and Gordon appeared on the Island, and set about working with the Sodor and Mainland Railway engines and the Wellsworth and Suddery engines to construct several branch lines. For quite a while, Thomas would sneak up behind Gordon the Big Engine and whistle loudly to scare him. This made Gordon cross, so one day, he decided to trick Thomas, and left the station before Thomas had been uncoupled from the back of the Express. He pulled Thomas all the way to Wellsworth, and Thomas was quite worn out. This experience made him careful around teasing Gordon for a long time. One day, when Henry fell ill, Thomas decided to take his train. But when he was at the platform, he left before the whistle blew, and therefore, he left the coaches behind. He was called back a little way down the line, and came back to take the train, He was teased dreadfully for this by Gordon and the other bigger engines, except for Edward. Edward knew what it was like to feel underpowered, and in an attempt to make Thomas feel better, he let him take his trucks, while Edward shunted his trucks in the yard. However, the trucks took advantage of Thomas's naiveness, and pushed him down Gordon's Hill. He almost crashed, but managed to stop himself by hitting some buffers at Wellsworth Station. After this, he wisely decided that he should let Edward teach him about trucks before he attempted to take another train. In 1925, an engine called James was purchased by Sir Topham Hatt. This engine flew off the rails one day when his wooden brake blocks caught on fire, and Thomas had to help rescue him. After everything was done, James was sent to Crovan's Gate Works for repairs and Thomas was given a branch line of his own, named the Ffarquhar Branch Line. This line was used by the Ffarquhar and Elsbridge Railway years ago, and was in a bad state of disrepair when Thomas first used it. However, after a lengthy repair process that took about a year, the line was up to the same standard as the Main Line. When Thomas first travelled this branch, he used standard sponge coaches he'd found in the yards, but one day, he found two coaches named Annie and Clarabel abandoned in Knapford Yards. He started taking these two out instead of generic old coaches, and the three of them became great friends. In the coming years, Thomas would have many more incidents on his branch line, including racing a red bus named Bertie, getting stuck in the snow then pulled out by a tractor called Terence, leaving his guard on the platform, and getting fish in his water tanks. In this time, Percy and Toby joined his branch line and started living at Ffarquhar with him. One day, Gordon the Big Engine slid into a ditch in Vicarstown Yards. When Thomas heard about this, he teased Gordon greatly and unrelentingly for quite a while. However, one day after teasing Gordon, Thomas fell down a mine at Toryreck Mines, and Gordon had to pull him out. After this, he and Gordon formed an alliance, where they swore to help each other if there ever was a situation where one of them were in trouble. The Fat Controller called all the engines to the shed one night, announcing that Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, and Duck were going to London, as some people didn't believe that they were real. Engines from the Other Railway came to perform the engines duties while they were away. A little Jinty tank engine, aptly named Jinty, was to take over work on Thomas' Branch Line. On the Sudrian engines' last day, Thomas crashed through some buffers and through a brick wall. He was very badly damaged, and the workmen almost didn't get him fixed in time. But, lo and behold, the next morning, Thomas showed up to Knapford just in time to leave for London. When they came back, Jinty was the only BR engine still there. As it turned out, the Fat Controller had actually bought the tank engine, as he was in danger of being scrapped on the Other Railway. Sadly, the other engines were too expensive for Sir Topham. Jinty went to work on Thomas's Branch, but soon moved to Station Pilot at Knapford. Stories of the NWR TBA Personality Thomas is very cheeky and sly, but knows when something is going too far. If he gets stuck or has a problem, he'll push through it. He has a heart of gold, and will always help his friends if needed. He is very stubborn, and usually likes to do jobs on his own. However, this is also a flaw. If someone teases him because he can't do a job because he's too weak, he'll become obsessed with completing this job, because he hates feeling weak. Basis and Technical Details Thomas is based on a LBSCR E2 Class Tank Engine with Extended Side Tanks. This engine is an 0-6-0 design and was designed by Lawson Billinton. The model used in Stories of the NWR is made by Cooldude7208, and is available on Sudrian Junction. Appearances TBA Trivia * Originally, the Si3D 2012 Thomas model was used for the series in early videos, buy when Cooldude7208 released his Season 1 Thomas model to the public, Denthur switched to this one as it had more features. * Thomas is Denthur's favourite TV show title character Category:North-Western Railway Engines Category:Ffarquhar Branch Line Engines Category:The Steam Team Category:Characters